Has an employer ever handled your application so badly you decided not to work for them?

@ElaborateCushion it's awful, isn't it!
Really felt for her, it was many yonks ago though, shockingly, in London!

They are demonstrating what they'd be like to work for so, if you can afford to, I'd turn a job down if they were rude.

I had a job interview once which started off well, when it was just me and two women from HR, but then the actual manager came in and deliberately sat with his back to me throughout the entire interview. (He literally turned his chair around so that he faced the wall rather than me!) They offered me the job the next day and I turned them down because of his weird/rude behaviour.

Yes Amazon in Europe. Appalling HR

I was applying for a role through a disability employment scheme. However it became quickly apparently that I was the wrong type of disabled (bipolar as opposed to a physical disability, although I'm now physically disabled too). The role was a switchboard role and they were going to great pains to emphasise the negative aspects of the role, working alone, shifts, stress... really dissuading me from the role and asking very personal questions about my health (far beyond need to know information). I withdrew my application during the interview.

Interestingly though I ended up meeting the person who did get the role (a physically disabled person) and their experience at the interview was a completely different one to mine which just confirmed my suspicions that they didn't want my type of disability. This person once in the role had a terrible experience however and they weren't accommodating or helpful of their disability and ended up having to leave. I'm glad I withdrew because the way they treated me betrayed their prejudices and their attitude so I'd have never had a good experience with them.

This is the problem with this type of scheme, organisations sign up to it at a high level because it looks good etc but then at the actual line management level they don't want the "hassle" of someone with slightly different needs.

I’m currently job hunting and the amount of ghosting happening is shameful.

I applied to a large household name company, did 4 rounds of interviews, including a presenting a plan. was told it was going to be a quick decision because the role had been empty for so long.
The day I was due to hear back, I saw someone in Linked In announce they were moving into the role, it was an internal hire. I heard nothing from them. 3 months later another announcement to say they had passed the probation period. On the same day I got a standard ‘thanks but no thanks’ rejection email.

im not really in a position to turn down job offers, but I wouldn’t apply to them again.

Places that I’ve been deeply unimpressed by have always failed to offer me the job. Thus depriving me of the opportunity to huffily refuse it. This does lead me to wonder if either (a) I’m actually the one who was a bit rubbish, or (b) we simply weren’t a good match. Obviously I stick with option (c) which says it’s them not me

My DH was once shouted at, and told he was actually unemployable, when he rejected a job. Which seemed slightly mixed up to him…

I get a lot of speculative emails from recruitment agents and there was one a few years ago whose emails started:

"I have recently been speaking with Mohammed, a lovely man, well spoken, originally from India, but moved here in 2000. Very very slight accent, but clear and completely understandable."

or

"I have personally interviewed Stanislav, originally from Bulgaria. He has excellent communication skills, speaking in a clear accent."

interestingly, when faced with a British name I got:

"I have personally interviewed Matthew this morning. He comes across as extremely knowledgeable and professional."

Matthew could very well have been from Northern Ireland or Liverpool with the strongest accent you could imagine, yet it was not mentioned.

I called her out on it and told her I wasn't comfortable with the first description of every candidate being their accent and place of schooling, but only if their name was "foreign" sounding and they were schooled in the UK. I pointed out that most companies send neutral CVs without names, age or sex being apparent so employers could decide, based on experience and qualifications.

I also went so far as to say that as an equal opportunities employer we recruit based on the person that is best suited to their job based on their abilities and not their country of origin, ethnicity or accent and suggested that their leading descriptions about candidates accents could be perceived as discrimination under the Equality Act. Then asked to be removed from their distribution list.

She came back to me with "Thank you for your opinion. I have removed you from our distribution list."

Not me, but my partner was a contractor at a large Bank for a number of years on a day rate and was laid off during COVID as were lots of others. After 18 months or so on furlough he thought he would look for something closer to home as he had got used to not commuting to London daily.

He applied for a job locally, told them his rate, yes yes that's great 4 interviews , skills tests etc weeks of process, when can you start, we'd be lucky to have you etc. It was a drop down in skill level but the trade off with not commuting made it a great deal.

The contract came and it was for £35k, less than a quarter of his day rate salary which he wasn't expecting as an employee but he had told them all along he would be looking at low six figures and the recruitment company knew this.

No wonder they thought they were getting a bargain! Fortunately shortly after things picked up again at the Bank and they rehired him, work from home. The other company have ceased trading.

yes this has happened to me.

was offered a job which would have been a pay rise of £1000 a month. Ideal.

it was a tmporary position, with a chance of becoming permanent. But, for the extra salary and devlopment opportunity I was prepared to take the risk of leaving a permanent job for a temporary one.

After 8 weeks they still hadn't completed their end of the routine paperwork so I withdrew my acceptance.

Could just imagine what it would have been like to work with such a level of incompetence/disregard in my management. No thank you!

This was my first job that I actually accepted because I didn't have a choice (nearly 15% unemployment in the country). I went through several interview stages including 2 written task and an in-person interview at the end with the company's in-country CEO. He made me feel very inadequate and asked about things that - as I later found out - were completely irrelevant for the job. He specifically did this to make me feel that I was actually lucky to get the job and to offer the lower possible wages. I was very young, out of uni and he made my confidence hit the rock bottom. I was shocked when he told me that I was hired, he shook my hand, told me to call him by his name and said he will 'Give me a chance'. As I later found out, they really struggled to hire anyone. I was paid 20% less than I asked for, given what I asked for after 9 months and stayed 4 years in the job. It was extremely stressful, repetitive and generally awful with some truly horrible people. I was glad when I left.

I had similar. When I was last looking for a job, I had a choice to make career path wise. I was contemplating branching out into a different sector and had a first interview with the person that would have been my immediate line manager.

I was then invited back to a second interview with her boss and he wasn't nice. I decided mid way through the interview that I wasn't going to take the job even if it was offered, and was going to stick with my original career pathway, but I was annoyed that I didn't heard anything from the recruitment agent.

I'd already been offered another job through a different agent, so didn't chase it up, but I was really surprised when, 6 months later, the recruitment agent called me about another job.

He actually started the conversation by telling me I hadn't got the previous job and I replied "well on the basis that it was 6 months ago and I hadn't heard anything more, I'd kind of assumed that!" then added a "I've actually been in a new role for the last 3 months" and he sounded genuinely surprised! Idiots!

Looking back now it was definitely the right decision, so I'm pleased they were so shit!

I was once cc'd into an email from the employer that had all the applicant's email addresses listed in the cc box.

I did raise it as an fyi but heard nothing back. It didn't happen again. I took the job

Day one and first item of training - the importance of GDPR when communicating with clients/families/agencies. I shit you not....

I went for an interview for NHS. The manager kept me waiting over forty minutes even though they were just upstairs. I did take the job as I needed the money but the manager was generally awful. I was glad to leave after a couple of years.

It wasn't the primary reason I declined their offer but after being completely ignored post-interview at a (so called!) professional, huge international company for a senior role they then emailed me SIX MONTHS later with a 'Congratulations! We'd like to offer you the role' message.

Funnily enough at that stage I was already several months in to a different (better) job, and hadn't been hanging around desperately for half a year for their answer!

I had a friend, when we were young, got a call from a job application. Super excited, first proper job etc. I watched her in excitement but was confused and then she told me what the guy on the phone said.

Apparently because she had a "foreign" name, she was told she'd have to do an english language type test to confirm her level of English. She's British and uk since birth.

She said he asked "can you speak a good level of english? We need you to do an x test before we can continue with your application" or something.
She responded with "can you read, my application listed all the schools I went to and education level - all in the uk".

He allegedly called her rude or whatever and needless to say, she didn't get the job and nor did she want it.

I went for a job that I really wanted and I thought was a great match for my skills.

I was given an interview time of 5:20pm, which I thought was odd as it was rather late and if they've been interviewing all day they would probably be rather fatigued.

Anyway I arrived, waited quite a while and was eventually called in. The guy greeted me with 'oh we didn't know you were coming'. I felt absolutely cut down. Then he had to rifle through all the papers to find my cv/cover letter and had to read them then and there.

Presumably there was some admin error (I wasn't on his list, I should never have been offered an interview, the time on the email was wrong, who knows?)

But, man!, to be told 'why are you here?' at the start of an interview is not exactly how you get the best out of people!

I didn't get the job...but it had probably already been offered to someone.

What's your specific example, OP? As people are sharing theirs?

@ThatArtfulCoralFinch

Yep, I had one ask what my dad and husband do for a living. Cut that interview short.

My first ‘proper’ job for an energy company but I did actually accept the job!
The job title was ‘Energy administrator’ but they were also hiring for ‘call centre operative’.
I applied only for the admin role, and at the interview specifically asked if the admin role involved any phone calls/call centre work as I was not remotely interested in doing that, and was told 100% definitely not- it was purely internal admin. I then made it clear yet again that if it was call centre work I was not at all interested. Again I was reassured.

I was then offered the job, contract said ‘energy administrator’ and I also asked for clarification yet again and again was firmly reassured.

Turned up for training (2 weeks long) and was in a mixed group of people with lots of different job titles, the training to begin with was just general about the energy industry - things they wanted us to know but not job specific. I was getting red flags but ignored them, I finally asked the trainer and he said no everyone is training together etc etc no matter what job role within the company.

Then at the end of the two weeks we were split into two groups, and taken up to the call centre floor, all put on the phones and computer systems with no actual specific training on how to use either. We were told this was our team manager and off we go. I obviously at that point asked for a meeting with the team manager, and they tried to delay and shrug me off, I however refused to sit at a phone until I had spoken to the manager. I explained that I was told numerous times it was not a call centre job, I was supposed to do internal admin only, and my job title was energy administrator and she admitted that there were 4/5 job titles for just the same call centre role and no difference between them and that in 6 months if I was still unhappy we could schedule a meeting to review then and then she shooed me out of the door.
At that point I walked out of the building and I was so upset/angry!

I wish I hadn’t ignored earlier red flags but I was young and actually took people on their word, they were unprofessional right from the application onwards so I wish I had trusted my gut!

Yep, a school. So many red flags and being repeatedly told that it had to be that way 'for the kids'. I left a few months later. I should have listened to the red flags.

Late 90's, I applied to a job I had seen online and was invited to interview with The Recruiter first. When I got there they said that the job had been filled but would I consider working for them instead. I said that I hadn't considered Recruitment but if they told me more I might. The David Brent wannabe then lambasted me for not showing more enthusiasm and said that he had a good mind to "rescind his offer". He then dragged in several young men and told them to tell me how much they had earned last month.
Dickhead finally said that he HAD decided to offer me the job BUT I would need to wear skirts and not trousers (like I was at that moment). At that point I left telling him that I would wear skirts to the office if he did.
They actually had the balls to send me an official offer letter a few days later.

I applied for a job several years ago. I worked in a very niche area which required several formal qualifications. The employer, post interview but before job offer, asked me to bring in my certificates to prove my qualifications. They were insistent on having the originals which I was nervous about, however as they were a huge, international, well known company I assumed they would be safe. So I duly left them.

And then I never heard from them again! I called, emailed, sent a carrier pigeon but to no avail so I eventually deposited myself in their reception and insisted that I was not leaving until I had my documents. They told me that I hadn’t left any! Oh my gosh it was so bloody stressful but after three hours they eventually admitted they had lost my documents.

I had to replace them at a cost of about £300 and I debated taking them through the small claims court to get redress, however in the end I left it as I knew the net result would still end up with me being out of pocket

This was many years ago and I still hate the company - if I ever see or hear their name I have to immediately tell whoever I’m with what happened. Maybe I need to get over it now 😄

I went for an interview that had a practical task and I was given a desk in the main office to complete it.

Everyone there was muttering and moaning, about the boss, about the workload, about other departments - everyone was miserable and stressed.

No thanks.

They called on my local landline, they knew I lived in a different county and still asked if I was interested

No. I wasn't

A good few years ago now, building developers, interview process was chaotic but even that did not set me up for the first day from hell. I was covering maternity, lady was at a mat appt, 9am I started, 9.15am sales director literally screaming at me to give her the sales figures! I got up and left.

That afternoon the Sales Director turned up at my home with flowers and literally begged me to give her another chance. I went back the next day and was gone again by lunch time as her behavior was exactly the same.

I heard thru the grapevine she was fired a few weeks later.